Surplus Is £4,611,000

Northern Advocate, 4 June 1947, Page 4

Surplus Is £4,611,000

Minister Repeats

(Special) WELLINGTON, This Day. The Public Accounts summary made by the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Holland) was based on principles and procedure which were not adopted by any commercial or public undertakings. The acting Minister of Finance (Mr Nordmeyer) said this yesterday in repeating, in reply to Mr Holland’s statement,' that the surplus for the past year was £4,611.000. Mr Holland's “real” surplus, he said, was arrived at by adding together balances carried forward from previous years in the three accounts, and totalling about £18.000.000, plus his imaginary surpluses in these accounts, which he quoted at £16.000,000.

YEAR’S WORKING A Budget surplus was the result of the year’s working and did not tak.e into account money in hand at the start of the year. “In Mr Holland's calculation, the same money is added twice to produce the wrong answer,” Mr Nordmeyer continued.

“His figures are incorrest to the extent of a mere £17,916,000, made up as follows:—Previous balance in Consolidated Fund, £4,500,000; previous balance in Social Security Fund, £1,716.000; previous balance in W'ar Expenses Account, £11,700.000; total, £17,916,000.

“When Mr Holland deals with the War Expenses Account, he is even further astray.

“He said that the cash balance at the beginning of the year was £11,700,000, the surplus on the year’s working £7,894,000, making a balance at the end of the year of £19,594,000.

GIFT TO BRITAIN “I explained that the war expenses balance, to the extent to which it was still available, was used toward meeting part of the cost of the gift to Britain of £12,500,000.

“The War Expenses Account is now being used for the clean-up stage of the war and no taxation is credited thereto.

“The funds in that account cannot therefore, be applied in producing a revenue surplus. “The closing cash balance v/as not £19,594,000, as suggested by Mr Holland, but £405,757, which, even for Mr Holland, is a serious discrepancy.

SOCIAL SECURITY FUND “In the case of the Social Security Fund no question of a surplus can arise, as there is a gap each year of many millions, representing the difference between revenue and expenditure chargeable to the fund. “The difference is made good by feeding into the fund from 1 the Consolidated Fund the amount required, and last year this transfer was made at £18,000,000, as authorised by Parliament last session.

“It was expressly stated last year by the Minister of Finance that it was necessary to build up a surplus in this fund, which is being drawn on at the rate of £3,000,000 a month. “To describe this increased opening balance as a Budget surplus is seriously misleading, to say the lf*ast.”